Along with a proliferation of consumer electronic devices there has been an increase in the number of associated cables that provide electrical power and data transmission to such consumer electronic devices. As a result there is a need to manage and organize such cables. Managing and organizing such cables includes the need to manage and organize such cables while the cables are in storage, while the cables are in transport, and while the cables are in use.
The art has responded to such needs with various cable holders and cable ties. Cable ties generally comprise a band of some sort with two terminal ends. Such cable ties generally function to manage and organize cables by a user first coiling the cable and then using the cable tie's band to wrap around the coiled cable, securing the coil. And once the cable tie's band has wrapped around the coiled cable, the two terminal ends are secured to each other by various securing means (e.g. twists, magnets, VELCRO (plurality of hooks and complimentary loops), hooks, clips, snaps, and ratchet style locking mechanisms).
For example, the art teaches various disposable cable ties, such as short metal wires (often covered by plastic or paper) generally referred to as twist ties. Or another example is disposable plastic cable ties with a ratchet style locking mechanism to secure the two terminal ends of the cable tie.
However, disposable cable ties as taught by the current state of art created at least three new problems: (1) a problem of waste; (2) a problem of being impractical; and (3) a problem of being too simple such that there is a loss in functionality.
As a general rule, disposable products in contrast to a comparable reusable product create excessive waste, putting additional pressure on limited resources, such as land-fill space. To address this problem, the art does teach reusable cable ties.
However, the problem with reusable cable ties, as currently taught, is the cost to produce reusable cable ties is significantly higher than comparable disposable cable ties. It would be desirable to produce a reusable cable holder with a manufacturing cost on the same order of magnitude as current disposable cable ties or at the very least cheaper than current reusable cable holder manufacturing costs.
For situations that involve the repetitive need to manage and organize cables, use of disposable cable ties which are not reusable becomes impractical. For example, consider a user who on a daily basis transports a plurality of electronic devices to and from work, such as a laptop, smartphone, and tablet device—all each having their own cables. It would be impractical for the user to use non-reusable cable ties in this all too common scenario and thus it would be desirable to have a cable holder which may be reusable.
Additionally, because disposable cable ties are made with a primary purpose of keeping manufacturing costs down, such disposable cable ties have only a bare minimum of functionality, such as the band with the means for securing the two terminal ends to each other, and with no additional features nor functionality, e.g. twist ties. Thus, the goal of making a cable tie disposable has an inherent problem of providing less functionality to best manage and organize cables, which results from keeping manufacturing costs to a minimum.
In order to combat this problem of over simplicity associated with existing disposable cable ties, it would be desirable to provide a cable holder with two separate means for attaching to a respective cable. The first means of attaching such a cable holder to a cable has already been discussed above, i.e. the band like structure which may wrap around the coiled cable and the terminal ends then being secured to each other to secure the coils together.
It would be desirable if an additional attachment means were utilized, such that the cable holder could first be attached to a cable, whether the cable was coiled or not, such that the cable holder would necessarily always be present when the cable needed to be coiled, e.g. such that the cable holder and the cable may be removably paired together. By “additional attachment means,” reference to using a second fastening means is intended that may be independent of a cable holder's ability to wrap around a cable or coil. However, where the art has added such an additional attachment feature, the art has utilized additional connection hardware (e.g. snaps and clips), not integral to the cable holder itself and thus such cable holders that currently exist in the art, with an additional attachment feature, are considerably more expensive to manufacture than the too simple disposable cable ties, such as twist ties. It would be desirable to provide a cable holder with an additional attachment means which is integral to the cable holder and thus minimizes increases in manufacturing cost.
Additionally, because the art has used additional connection hardware to achieve the additional attachment feature, such as snaps and clips, this creates two other problems: (1) rigidity; and (2) unnecessary complexity or too much complexity. The use of snaps and clips as means of connecting a cable holder to a cable includes an inherent property of the snap and clip which is rigidity. And rigidity necessarily means a limit to the diameter of cable which the snap and clip may attach to, i.e. some cable diameters will be too large and some too small for a given rigid snap or clip to attach to. In other words such existing snaps and clips, which are rigid, have no adjustability feature because of the rigidity.
In contrast, if the additional attachment feature was achieved with an elastic stretchable material, a greater array of cable diameters could be accommodated, which increases the usefulness of such a cable holder. Further, the use of a rigid snap or clip also generally permits the snap or clip to slide along the longitudinal length of the attached to cable which may be undesirable because there is a loss in the ability to keep the cable holder in a fixed position with respect to the cable. It would be desirable if the additional attachment means included a friction device to limit such longitudinal sliding along a given length of cable. And lastly, realizing the additional attachment feature by use of additional connection hardware tends to result in an overall cable holder which is unnecessarily complex and thus the art has moved from being too simplistic with the disposable cable ties to being too complex with cable holders that include an additional attachment feature. It would be desirable to provide a cable holder with an additional attachment means where such a feature retains operational simplicity, but without comprising functionality.
Additionally, with respect to cable ties with ratchet style locking mechanisms, such disposable cable ties have a problem of the locking mechanism being unlockable. Thus if a locking mechanism is locked too tightly or simply locked by mistake, such locking cannot be undone and may require the too tight cable tie being cut-off and a new cable tie utilized. Thus it would be desirable to provide a cable holder which may be removably coupled to a given cable.
Further, plastic cable ties have a problem which arises from using plastic as a material of construction because while plastics can be manufactured with a geometry to provide a flexible cable tie, such cable ties are not elastic, which limits the size of circumference that the cable tie's band may circumscribe. That is many plastic formulations as a material of construction does not provide much ability to stretch the material to wrap around a larger bundle of cables. However, plastic cable ties, despite not being stretchable, may be a durable choice of material of construction. It would be desirable if cable holder exhibited elastic properties to accommodate stretching around a greater range of circumferences per a given length the band of such a cable holder. Additionally, it would be desirable for such a material of construction to also be a durable material of construction, so the material may also realize the reusable objective.
The art also teaches use of a means for removably securing the two terminal ends of the band using magnets. Use of magnets does provide the benefit of operational simplicity. However, such magnetic cable holding devices as currently taught by the art do exhibit a number of problems.
For example, in one such cable holder the magnets are housed in a tubular sheath and also require a backing plate to maintain the magnets in proper location within the tubular sheath. Such related art thus provides excessive limitations within the cable holder device. It would be desirable to provide a magnetic cable holder that does not require housing the magnets in a tubular sheath and also does not require use of any backing plates.
Additionally in some of the related art of magnetic cable holders, the magnets used have a substantial surface exposed to the environment. Exposing a surface of the magnet to the environment creates several problems. Such exposure increases the probability of the magnet escaping the cable holder and rendering the cable holder non-functional. And such exposure increases the amount wear, tear, and possible damage to the magnet, i.e. exposing the magnet's surface lowers the cable holder's durability. It would be desirable to provide a magnetic cable holder where the surfaces of the magnet are substantially protected from the environment.
To a certain degree the art has responded to this exposure of a surface of the magnets by completely enclosing the magnets within the two terminal regions of a band. While completely enclosing the magnets is one solution to the problems associated with exposing a magnet surface to the environment, such a solution creates a new problem.
By completely enclosing the magnet within a material, there is an inherent decrease in magnetic closure strength because of the additional distance between the magnets and the terminal surface (outer surface), which separates the magnets further in distance when the cable holder is closed. As is well known even a small change in the distance separating two magnets has a great impact upon the magnetic field as magnetic field strength is inversely proportional to the square of the separation distance. Additionally, completely enclosing magnets also forces the magnetic field to pass through a solid material which also may decrease the strength of the magnetic field.
One solution to this decrease in magnetic closure strength may be to use stronger magnets. However, that solution increases manufacturing costs and makes the cable holder bigger and heavier. An alternate solution may be to enclose the magnets within a thin surface. However, such an approach would increase the chances of surface tear and lower the cable holder's durability. It would be desirable to provide a magnetic cable holder where the substantial surfaces of the magnet may not only be protected from the environment, but where the manner of protecting the magnets from the environment may be durable and may not diminish the magnetic closure strength as much as totally enclosing the magnet within a material of construction would diminish the magnetic closure strength.
There is a need in the art for a cable holder which can provide the various desirable features and objectives as described above.
It is to these ends that the present invention has been developed.